So. Many. Damn. Film. Festivals….SQUEEEE!!!!

For cinema nerds, fall (autumn if you’re fancy), is a delicious cozy dreamscape of sitting in the dark and noshing on pop corn and chardonnay watching a cornucopia of cinematic delights unfurl on a big screen!

Or, in the Age of Covid, curled up on your ratty old couch under your favorite polyblend Hello Kitty throw blanket with a real kitty on your lap binge watching some lurid sex thriller at 3am on your big screen Tee Vee.

The gayest of all, is the Seattle Queer Film Festival, formerly the very stupidly named TWIST Film Festival and before that the boring old school but gets the job done, Seattle Lesbian & Gay Film Festival produced by Three Dollar Bill Cinema and running this year from October 14 through the 24th and simultaneously happening both online from the relative safety of your home and live and in-person at local cinemas.

But, before things get queer, there are several other options. SIFF, aka the Seattle International Film Festival has been solely only doing online screenings since Covid started in March of 2020 but they’re finally ready to reopen the physical doors to two of their three venues this weekend. The Egyptian Cinema on Capitol Hill (where the Seattle Queer Film Festival will screen later in October) and their actual headquarters at SIFF Cinema Center on the Seattle Center campus will both re-open for public screenings. SIFF’s third venue, the 3 screen Uptown Cinema in Seattle’s Uptown neighborhood will reopen later this year.

SIFF is also debuting their first Documentary Film Festival this very weekend! DocFest will kick off on Thursday, September 30th at SIFF Cinema at The Egyptian and run through October 7th and will also include online screenings. Go HERE for tickets and a full schedule of the films.

SIFF Film Center reopens on Friday, October 1st with a lovely film about a little transgender girl. LITTLE GIRL is “a sympathetic and poignant documentary about Sasha, an eight-year-old transgender girl whose family protects her from her rural French town’s outdated gender norms.” It runs October 1st thru Sunday October 3rd at the Film Center which is located in the Northwest corner of Seattle Center in between the new Climate Pledge Arena and Seattle Repertory Theatre. Go here for tix/more info.

Also opening this weekend: the TASVEER FILM FESTIVAL now in its 16th year of showcasing South Asian cinema, literature and storytelling. For 2021, Tasveer will also feature live/in-person events as well as virtual screenings of their films and programs…they’ll kick off this Friday, October 1st with a live event at Broadway Performance Hall on Capitol Hill, a screening of a gay themed comedy, Coming Out with the Help of a Time Machine, about “an MIT graduate, Sid, (who) decides to come out to his traditional Indian parents with the help of a time machine.” This film, which runs 30 minutes and is in English and Hindi, will also screen with the comedy/drama 7 Days about a couple on a blind date who are forced together for…SEVEN DAYS due to a Covid-19 induced quarantine. This is a full length film in English and you can snag tickets to see both of them over HERE!

Finally, at least for this longass post, there’s ACTIVATE/REFUGE, the 2021 Social Justice Film Festival which runs October 7th through the 17th. Originally, the producers of the event had planned on doing live screenings of the films but earlier this month they made the decision to only screen their films online for health and safety reasons. As a result, you can watch all of their terrific films at home, with your cat and cat themed blankets and no one will judge you for it or for the huge amounts of junk food you’re injesting while watching these socially relevant motion pictures.

If you’re looking for films with queer content, then check out their films under “Queer Voices” which include the sort horror film ITCH and HISTOIRE D’UNE LARME.